200 displaced families repatriated in northeastern Diyala

Diyala (IraqiNews.com) Two hundred displaced families have been repatriated at liberated villages in northeast of Diyala, a commander said on Wednesday.

“Two hundred displaced families have started to return back to liberated villages in north of Muqdadiyah, in coordination with the operations command and local authorities,” Maj. Gen. Mazhar al-Azzawi, commander of Dijlah Operations Command, told AlSumaria News on Wednesday.

“More displaced people will return back to their homes over the coming few weeks after concluding the security checking,” he added.

Earlier this month, Sattar Nawroz, a spokesperson of the Migration and Displacement Ministry said more than 55% of people displaced during the three-year war against the Islamic State militants returned to their home regions.

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, have been fighting since October 2016 to retake territories Islamic State had occupied. Since then, forces took back the group’s former capital, Mosul, the town of Tal Afar, Kirkuk’s Hawija, and Anbar’s Annah, Rawa and Qaim.

Iraqi authorities had unveiled plans to repatriate all refugees before this year’s end.

The war against IS has displaced at least five million people. Thousands others fled towards neighboring countries including Syria, Turkey and other European countries, since IS emerged to proclaim its self-styled “caliphate”.